He objected to being lifted by his shoulders by Jun and another servant, named Shou, yet he couldn’t even put on his clothes properly. He was ashamed, but he accepted their help when his fingers started fumbling while in the attempt to tie his long woolen robe.

Kuro was lifted down the stairs, and he tried to use only one leg - his left - to lightly put some weight down at the stair’s landings. But, Jun reprimanded him.

“Now, now, young master,” he said. “Trying to stand will make our job difficult. Besides, you weigh quite little, if I maybe impudent enough to say so. Perhaps a few warm lunches would have you right back to your best.”

Yes, he felt weak. But, he thought with a sigh, it’s not going to be that easy to get back to walking. When at last they had him brought down and carried all the way through bright corridors and little internal gardens of stone and moss, they tried to sit him down on a soft cushion, but not before his right foot grazed at the edge of the low table in front of him.

He was tall, Kuro. He had lanky legs, and he couldn’t keep them folded any longer. What resulted was a sharp, searing pain shooting up his shin, his thighs, and into the right side of his stomach. He cried out in anguish, but the pain was a flash. And it receded back in a flash, too; it left only a dull sensation of an old wound, or something like a mild knock of a leg striking a piece of furniture.

“Are you okay?” Narumi’s voice, ringing with concern, came from behind him.

“I am –” he began answering, but now that his flashing pain had vanished, he saw in front of him a most beautiful and striking scene.

A large garden - a beautiful one - lay in front of him, with an extensive pond that snaked through the landscape, like a small rivulet through a secret ravine, surrounded by trees sprouting bright red leaves like an ode to the hue of autumn, with shrubs of many sizes with berries and flowers, with green grass beside them, and moss growing in the shade of large grey stones set between them and silken waves lapping at little pebbles at the water’s edge. For a moment, that view in the Sun’s slanting light and the cold, clear air through which the snowy peaks of the mountains were visible as a backdrop to the enchanting garden, transfixed his mind.

“Wow,” he said, resting his elbows on top of the table.

“Yeah. It is a good view.”

“This is the garden you were talking about?”

“Hmmm,” Narumi said. “This is the second time since the morning that I feel disappointed by your lost memories. I understand you forgot about me, dear brother, about our parents, and our older brother. But, to think you forgot about Kurocchi and our garden!”

She covered her mouth in mock alarm.

“Young master, and young mistress, would you like some tea?” Jun asked them.

“Yes, I will very much like a small pot, Jun. Thank you so much.”

Jun gave them a nod, and then another subtler nod to other attending servants, after which all of them withdrew except one who retreated to give the two siblings privacy.

“It is a real shame,” Kuro said. “To have forgotten all of this. I do know that there is a thing called tea, but I don’t remember how it tastes, nor how it smells. I know it is made from leaves of the tea plant, and I know it’s sort of yellowish-green. But, anything else, I don’t know. Strange, isn’t it?”

“Everything? Like, what is that … thing in the sky which is so bright and hot?”

“I know what the Sun is, Narumi.”

“But you forgot things like you have a sister and what is tea.”

“Or what the names of those mountains are. Or what that tree is called. It’s not ginkyo, for I remember how they look, with leaves that turn golden in autumn.”

“Strange that you forget everything, but remember how ginkyo trees look,” she said, as Jun came in with two cups and a steaming pot made of lacquered ceramic. He went down on his knees and poured them a cup each, holding the lid of the pot and tilting it slightly with a refined elegance. The greenish yellow liquid poured out, and the fragrance of it was refreshing and relaxing. It knocked at the door of smells that he used to remember. Even in the way Jun poured - it all felt familiar. Jun seemed to be the man who took care of the house and who got things done in the house.

The house …

“Spring Breeze,” he said.

Both Narumi and Jun looked at him.

Where did that come from?

“Spring Breeze Hall,” he said again.

“See, young mistress? He will slowly recover his memories, just as the Doctor said.” Jun was placing the pot back. He got up and gave a bow. “I am so happy to have you walking again in your ancestral hall, Master Kuro.” And then he turned and left.

“It will all come back,” Narumi said. “Maybe if you sip more tea, you’ll remember everything else.” Then she turned away as if talking to someone else. “Can’t believe he forgot about his only sister.”

“I’m sorry,” Kuro told her.

“Do you remember you owe me seven thousand mon for a kimono?”

Kuro had no idea what she was talking about. So, instead he took a sip of the tea. It was hot, and it almost burnt his tongue, but the effect was refreshing. The fragrance filled his nose, and left a little bitter but sweet grassy taste behind.

“Ah,” he remarked. “That tastes amazing.”

Narumi scooted over and put her arm through his. “You owe me a silk kimono for coming to visit your room everyday. Mother too, you know?”

“I realize I love tea,” Kuro took a sip and said. “I don’t remember anything about anyone else though. And silk kimono …” He had a little laugh. “I don’t even know if I have money to my name.”

“Don’t be silly,” Narumi said. “You’re the son of a Viscount. You get stipends from the empire, for just being that.”

Viscount. Nobility. Who else would have a house this big? He thought that merchants sometimes did, but the number of servants - the ostentatious garden, and the corridors that turned around to many corners - the hallmarks of a large house - a seat of power - really pointed towards nobility. So he was the son of a noble.

“Wow,” Kuro thought aloud. “That’s amazing. I definitely didn’t expect that.”

“That’s alright. You’ll learn. Like, that tree is called Springfire Bloom. It comes from the distant islands full of birds with long tails and fruits of many colours in the Shallow Sea where it grows on volcanoes, and when spring comes it makes it look like the hills are on fire. You used to love walking in the garden. You would let me walk along with you, and you would talk about all the things you wanted to do after you grew up. I learnt all of this from you.”

Kuro took another sip.

“Am I different person now?”

Narumi turned and looked him full in the eye. She had beautiful eyes, round and big, with irises that lingered with a puzzling shade that bounced between green and gray in the diffused light of the afternoon sun.

“You just woke up from a sleep of three years,” she said. “If nothing was different, I’d be very alarmed.”

She gazed out towards the garden. The shadows of the trees hovered at their roots, and Kuro saw a fish jump from the pond and splash back into it. A breeze was blowing, a cold one from the west, from the outlined white peaks rising out, green and full of forests, above the edge of the garden, which then turned to snow, ice, and rock as the air rarefied with their great heights. But, the warm tea contrasted well.

Narumi then said, after they had listened to the wind in silence, “In fact, you seem a little kinder.”

“So, if I was asleep for three years, how old am I?”

“Seventeen.”

“So, you are?”

“Fourteen. Naoya is a twenty four, if you wanted to know.”

“Seventeen … I feel older. I remember fragments. Taste of apples. Smell of coffee. Snow and ice.”

Her grip on his arms tightened. “It was a blizzard. You were lost in a blizzard. You were angry, and you headed out. That’s what happened. I kept asking people to go and find you … they didn’t listen.”

In the back of his head, that sounded like the sort of person he was: an obstinate bastard. Deep down, he knew that was the truth. Like little bubbles, memories kept popping at the surface of his consciousness. Nothing was concrete, but some settled in the tool-tray of his mind. He needed information. Hisaka, yes. That was a name. A place. A castle, and a city.

Yet, for the life of him, he couldn’t remember a mother.

“Mother is at Castle Hisaka?”

Narumi nodded.

“You’ve got to help me, Narumi. Teach me things about the world again. Go with me to places, and tell me the right information. I trust you.”

She turned to him, and gave a flat smile of awkwardness, as if she wasn’t used to getting praised by others.

“Let’s start with Castle Hisaka.”

“Oh. Everyone’s in Castle Hisaka at the moment. The Prince Hidenori is coming to lead a royal hunt against obakemono. So, that’s why, the Duke wanted Father to organize everything. Oh right. Our father is the Viscount of Nishihisaka. Did I mention that? I realize this might be confusing for you.”

“Yes, you just did a while back. We are the House of Karahashi.”

“We’re just a minor house, to be honest,” Narumi said. “Old, but a small one. But, Father is like the right hand man of the Duke Murasaki. They’ll be delighted to hear the news as well. It’s been a while since I saw Rin ane-ue, though. They came visit you … a few years ago.”

“You said hunting obakemono. What is that?”

“Oh! Right. How do I explain that? Bad spirits - evil things. Monsters.”

“Monsters?”

“Yeah. Tsurumori is full of them. Or so they say. I remember going out with you in there, once. I was very young. Mother scolded you really bad. You had extra practice after school everyday for months!”

“I did that?”

“Yeah. You did all sorts of cool things.”

“How old were you?”

“Eight?”

“And this Tsurumori - this is a mountain?”

“A forest. And you took me, with Rin, inside the forest and we met an explorer in his camp. There was a girl too - she was very cool looking. I wanted to be like here. And it was fun. I loved it.”

He shook his head. “So, I was an irresponsible idiot. Even without any memories I realize that is fraught with danger. Good thing I didn’t take you with me into the blizzard.”

He finished his cup in one long gulp.

“There’s a lot of things that I don’t know. I think I need books, and I need someone patient enough who will help when I need to go take a bloody walk. Will you walk with me in the Garden? I think I’m learning a lot. I need to get up to speed with all the names. I should call Jun, and this time I’m walking with that crutch.”

“There’s only one question, nii-san,” Narumi said. “It’s about something you said something about, this word: coffee. What is that?”

“What do you mean?”

“You said, ‘smell of coffee’. What is it? Never heard of that before. Is it a type of smell?”

He paused for a moment and thought. Yes, he remembered. The grinding. The hot water swirling in a cone. The hiss of steam inside an espresso machine. Lonely cups steaming on rainy days beside misted windows.

“Coffee,” he said. “It’s a drink. Like tea.” He gulped. “Must have not told you about it before. Hah.”

“Cooool!” she said. “A drink! Tell me about it all, okay?”

“Yeah.” He wasn’t sure how she had never heard of coffee. He used to smell it. Drink it. Make it.

Then, he remembered, he must have been fourteen when you got into the “incident”. And he wondered what sort of a boy gets to work in a coffee shop at fourteen. He wondered why he remembered a coffee shop at all. Something wasn’t right.